Will distis fight for the channel?

Warranty was yet again the central topic for discussion at the Aurangabad IT
Panchayat, organized by DQ Channels and The DQ Week recently. Manish Joshipura
of Redington India, Kiran Morgaonkar of Ingram Micro India, Ajay Goenka of Rashi
Peripherals and Milind Modi of Neoteric Infomatique comprised the panel of
distributors.

Partners said that often distributors shrugged off the responsibility of
offering post-sales support, saying it was the vendor's job. While this is true
of some vendors, they learnt at the IT Panchayat that there were some
distributors like Redington, which has created a services arm that take care of
after-support issues.

One reason why partners in the city were unhappy about the existing service
network is because often distis or vendors had their service centers outside
city limits. This meant that the customer had to pay octroi for bringing in the
repaired product back into the city, though it is not a new product.

To this, Goenka replied that Rashi would soon open an RMA center within the
city limits. Neoteric has an arrangement with Axioma for offering support, while
Ingram handled service on its own for some products.

Partners urged that distributors should campaign with the vendor for better
support infrastructure. Suhas Lanke of Hi-Tech Computers said, “If in some cases
even distributors are unable to honor vendor's service commitments, then they
should take this up with the vendor, because ultimately such instances affect
the relationship between distis and the partner.”

(L-R) Ajay Goenka of Rashi Peripherals, Milind Modi of Neoteric, Kiran Morgaonkar of Ingram and Manish Joshipura of Redington at IT Panchayat Aurangabad

Sanjay Agarwal of Mainframe Computers spoke of a peculiar problem he faced,
wherein he was told that only Lenovo laptops bought from local dealers would be
serviced in Aurangabad. Lenovo laptops bought in Pune would not be serviced in
the city. He directed this question to Joshipura of Redington, Lenovo's
distributor. The latter pledged ignorance about this case and assured that he
would look into the matter.

With recurring service issues affecting their business, partners urged that
distis should have a dedicated person to look after the service only in the
city. Morgaonkar remarked that appointing a person to oversee service and
offering service are two distinct things, and should not be mixed.

Yet another instance of inadequate service offered came from Sameer Vitekar
of Memory Marketing India. He claimed that when Xerox printer was launched, the
vendor assured of three-year warranty. Now, they are not keeping their words and
insist that it offers only one-year warranty. “Distis should stop entertaining
vendors who are not living up to their service agreements,” he demanded.

He also brought forth the case of Asus, where the company is virtually
inaccessible and has a very high defect rate. “Today, Asus claims that some of
its motherboards are not in production and so they ask the customer to purchase
an upgraded model. But then what about the CPU, which might not work with the
new board? Will Asus pay for the CPU as well? Asus also offers 30 percent of the
product's price as compensation which is absurd, as my customers will not accept
it,” Vitekar railed.

While the distis were not willing to take a stand of suspending business with
vendors who offer inadequate service, they assured the channel that they would
try to take this feedback to the top management of the vendor companies to bring
about a quick change in policies.

But the point that everyone was missing is that even if a distis ever
suspends business with a vendor because it is not living up to its service
promises, it does not resolve the existing problem of the dealer who is still
stuck with the faulty product. The partners are holding on to a hope that things
will change with respect to service in future and then it will not be as
difficult doing business.